Sources: Top Donovan Staff Lawyer, Laura Jordan, Is Aide Who Gave Inside Information To Campaign Manager

Federal prosecutors asserted in an indictment made public July 26 that an unidentified legislative aide had exchanged electronic messages in April and May with Joshua Nassi, then manager of House Speaker Christopher Donovan's congressional campaign, about a pending bill that some campaign contributors wanted killed.

Top Democratic legislative leaders would not agree to a Republican lawmaker's proposal earlier this week to launch their own probe into possible wrongdoing in the General Assembly, including the House speaker's office. And up to now, Legislative Aide 1 — as the person is referred to in the indictment — has not been identified publicly.

But in recent days, sources familiar with the events described in the indictment have confirmed to The Courant that she is Laura Jordan, a top aide and lawyer who is paid $150,000 a year in the House speaker's office at the Capitol.

Jordan, on Murphy's advice, refused to be interviewed during lawyer Stanley Twardy's recent internal investigation of the campaign. Twardy found no evidence to implicate Donovan in wrongdoing. Donovan has denied knowledge of any improper activity in his campaign, and has not been charged.

Jordan has not been charged with any wrongdoing by the FBI or by the U.S. attorney's office. She has been described by many at the Capitol as a key Donovan aide, enjoying direct access to him and, at times, expressing his position in legislative meetings about how bills should be crafted and acted upon.

Spokesmen for House Democrats have said that Jordan's job status is unchanged, but that she has not been at work for nearly two weeks because she has been taking vacation or accumulated compensatory time.

House Majority Leader Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden — who is expected to become speaker next year now that Donovan is giving up his legislative seat to run for Congress — said Friday that he has not sought to find out who Legislative Aide 1 is. He said that's because although the indictment describes communications between the aide and Nassi, "Thereis nothing in the indictment that suggests that there was anything that took place to compromise legislation."

"What we have from the indictment is an allegation from the federal authorities that text communications took place between Josh Nassi and an aide," Sharkey said. "Nothing in the indictment says that the next thing occurred — which is if there was communication that was done to affect that legislation. Nothing like that's been alleged."

And so, Sharkey said, he stands by his pronouncement earlier this week that it was "premature" for state Senate Republican leader John McKinney to call for a legislative investigation into the Donovan scandal in general — and, in particular, the text communications between Legislative Aide 1 and Nassi.

Donovan could not be reached for comment Friday. He faces a three-way primary for the Democratic 5th District nomination on Aug. 14 against Elizabeth Esty and Dan Roberti.

Since May 31, when the campaign-financing scandal became public, eight people have been arrested. One of those arrested, on July 26, is Nassi, who is charged with conspiring to conceal the source of political contributions. Nassi is one of three campaign aides that Donovan fired immediately after the scandal broke.

Nassi, also a lawyer, served as a $110,000-a-year key aide to Donovan in the speaker's office until he left in October to manage the congressional campaign. In addition to working on the same staff in the Capitol, Jordan and Nassi had a close personal relationship outside of work, Capitol sources have said.

Legislative Aide 1 was mentioned several times in last week's indictment. The document says that the aide kept Nassi up to date via electronic messages about the status of a bill to impose new taxes and fees on so-called roll-your-own tobacco businesses, where customers pour tobacco into machines that produce cut-rate cigarettes.

Several contributors were hoping that Donovan would kill the bill after they funneled $27,500 into his campaign through straw, or "conduit," contributors, the indictment said.

The indictment said that on May 24, "Legislative Aide 1 sent Nassi an electronic message informing him of the status of negotiations" about whether the roll-your-own tax bill would be included in major budget legislation up for consideration in a mid-June special session of the General Assembly. The bill had failed to win passage by the May 9 adjournment of the regular legislative session, even though it had cleared a key committee in early April.

In the May 24 exchange, Legislative Aide 1 expressed concern to Nassi about being the sole opposition to the roll-your-own tax bill. The aide wrote "everyone wants roll ur own. I was the lone no."